Writing for the majority of the divide court, recently appointed Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman said it was an invasion of privacy for State Police to use attach a GPS device to 41-year-old Scott Weaver’s vehicle while they were investigating him for a burglary. Four years ago, State Police tracked Weaver over 65 days in connection with the burglary investigation and a jury later convicted him.

But the Court of Appeals surpressed the evidence from the GPS device today and ordered that Weaver be given a new trial.

Devoting much of his 20-page ruling to how new technology delves into a person’s life, Lippman said:

“What the technology yields and records with breathtaking quality and quantity, is a highly detailed profile, not simply of where we go, but by easy inference, of our associations — political, religious, amicable and amorous, to name only a few — and of the pattern of our professional and avocational pursuits.”

“It would appear clear to us that the great popularity of GPS technology for its many useful applications, may not be taken simply as a massive, undifferentiated concession of personal privacy to agents of the state.”